When the season list was just realised, Kyoukai no Kanata was definitely one of the stronger series among the others... Or so I thought.
Being a typical Kyoto Animation series, it still retained the usual moeblob elements but what surprised me was their rare entry into the semi-action genre. Sure we did see some KyoAni preview of how their action scenes seem like back when chuunibyou aired, but this time round, it wasn't just any typical delusions but rather a full fledged action animation series by KyoAni themselves! Additionally, Kyoukai no Kanata was an original series, although adapted from a light novel, it was still produced by KyoAni, and I had pretty high expectations for it. All was great until the very end. If you would ask me which part was great and which was not, I would honestly say that the first 11 and a half episode was awesome and the last half of their last episode just failed to deliver an appropriate end. Just horrible IMO. I'll get to that later.
The series had a strong start, having our main protagonist introduced in a rather interesting way, with our dear Kanbara Akihito getting stabbed right in his chest by our megane-bishoujo Kuriyama Mirai. Other characters were subsequently introduced, each with a typical personality that made each character easy to remember and likeable at the same time. So here's the typical line up of our main 4 protagonist: Kanbaru Akihito, a half-youmu (I would prefer to call him a hanyou though) who is pretty much immortal with insane regenerative abilities. Kuriyama Mirai is a youmu-hunter who wields a blade created by her own blood which instantly reminds me of Deadman Wonderland. Now there are pretty much many scenes where we see Mirai getting all anaemic due to her blood loss from using her weapon too much, but I dun actually recall characters in Deadman Wonderland feeling the same. They definitely use waaaay more blood than Mirai herself so I guess this makes Kyoukai a little more realistic? Next we have the Nase siblings where the brother Hiroomi is pretty much a siscon over his sister Mitsuki.
The first few episodes did focus more on Mirai herself and how she gets more comfortable living with everyone else as she thinks of herself as a more special person with the power of the cursed blood and normally she would get segregated by the society but that wasn't what Akihito and the others did. There was however a first loophole, or I would say a mistake n KyoAni's part, which was to introduce the anime-original character, Sakura into the series.
I wouldn't say that it is always a bad idea to include an original character, but in Kyoukai's case, it wasn't a good idea at all. In the end, there was not much development on Sakura as a character at all. All she felt like was a character being included due to having to fix a possible loophole or to be there because the story needed someone to play that role. Which in this case was the background story of the Hollow Shadow. To me, it didn't seem important to actually include Sakura in it since Mirai would still feel much distress if the Hollow Shadow was forcing her memory to surface and Sakura just felt 'extra'. Furthermore, her story was over in just one episode which after that she just became a normal side character with no plot drive at all. Kyoukai could do all well without this new character at all.
One of my favourite episode was perhaps the most light-hearted or the most stupid yet hilarious episode that we'll ever see with the fight to subdue the fruit youmu. It was obviously a filler and a slight fanservice episode but nonetheless, it was witty, funny and their insert song was amazing. When it comes down to music, KyoAni never stops to amaze me with those mini performances just like they did in K-on.
The Hollow Shadow arc was probably one of the best plot driver since it made Mirai realise the fact that she wasn't the only one feeling that she was special. After seeing how Akihito succumb to his youmu side, it was evident that in fact, Akihito was suffering more than Mirai since he was still unable to control his youmu powers. It was pretty obvious that Akihito would be the one to let the Hollow Shadow take over and later get eradicated by Mirai, but the last scene where Mirai sees the true Akihito was touching as well.
And then came the main plot of the whole series which was about Kyoukai no Kanata. I didn't expect the title itself to play a part in the story but boy was I surprised that it was and at the same time, I thought it was pretty brilliant for KyoAni to thought of this. Apparently, Kyoukai no Kanata is an extremely powerful youmu with a power able to destroy the world and the youmu-hunter's goal was to destroy this youmu. And it turns out that Akihito's youmu was actually Kyoukai no Kanata itself and Mirai knew it all along. Even killing Akihito has been her true goal all along! Up to that point, I was thinking that hey, this is a good twist. With everything linking up, the story progresses where Mirai forcefully separates the youmu from Akihito and she disappears along with it. Now that's where the true meaning of Beyond the Boundary starts to appear. The youmu took the shape of a 'world' and it was some sort of a mirror world beyond that of the real world, which I guess gave birth to the name of 'Beyond the Boundary'. It was sweet and touching too to see Mirai sacrificing herself and that little kiss that the duo shared in the dream world. Although the romance side of the series was pretty weak, it was still sweet to see that happening. And then everything starts to fall apart...
First was the solution in getting Mirai back. Akihito's eccentric mother appears out of nowhere, holding the solution to save Mirai. At that point in time, Akihito starts to question his origins, which the mother decides to hold on to whatever secret that she has till the very end. To the readers, it just seems like more answered questions are being added right when the series was going to end. It only makes us speculate more without ever getting the final answer to those questions. What comes next was Izumi's relation with Akihito's mother Yayoi. The two does seem to be rather close to each other but nothing was revealed about them either.
Secondly, in the final fight between Izumi and Miroku, Miroku hinted that Izumi does hold a youmu inside her, similar to Miroku himself but that too, was never explained and was just left hanging. Same with the outcome of the fight. Miroku just exploded into thin air... so does that mean that he died? But judging from his youmu powers, it doesn't seem like he would die so easily... which means that no one knows what had happened to Miroku too.
With all the fuss separating Akihito with Kyoukai no Kanata, where has the plot gone when he just takes it back into himself??? It all seems like whatever happened in the previous few episodes just occurred for nothing. And that would mean that Mirai had sacrificed her self for nothing AND that the whole problem about the Kyoukai no Kanata residing inside Akihito just went unsolved, and the series ends... So ultimately, the risk is still there since Akihito still can't control his youmu side, which is the Kyoukai no Kanata, which holds the power to destroy the world... Nice reversal of the plot over there... *note the sarcasm =.=*
Finally, it was the return of Mirai in the epilogue that ruined everything. Honestly I was still ignoring the other loopholes until the epilogue came, which just destroyed the whole series in that few minutes. Right before the conclusion was reached, Akihito takes back the Kyoukai no Kanata into himself and with it gone, Mirai who had previously absorbed it would cease to exist. It was heartbreaking to see Mirai breaking down at the last moment. Akihito sure looked so sad, knowing that no matter what he did, he wouldn't be able to save Mirai since what's done had been done and all he was left over was the ring that Mirai always held with her. Honestly I didn't quite sense the death flag by Mirai. It only hit me when a crack was shown at her leg which then struck me : "oops. she's gone". Was glad that there weren't any forced romance flags being triggered right at the last moment just like Robotics;Notes and then the credits started rolling as we head into the epilogue. Halfway through, the ring that was the only thing remaining of Mirai disappeared. It led me into thinking that the ring could've stayed on due to the bond between Mirai and Akihito and by disappearing, it would mean that she was really gone and Akihito would most likely move on after there short but fateful encounter.
BUT WAIT!
KyoAni decides to pull out a deus ex machina and Kuriyama Mirai returns, all unscathed, without her megane and reunites once again with Akihito at the rooftop where they first met. Now now... just HOW did she manage to return? I do get the idea that KyoAni is settling for a happy ending, but it is this kind of situations that some characters should remain dead. Not that I particularly want to see Mirai dead and Akihito being all sad, but the series would have ended so much better if she had just stayed out of the picture until the end. I don't see it as a "must" to bring her back, since she only satisfy the condition of a "happy end" which to me, I only see it as a story breaker and a horrible ending.
All in all, this is actually a good series to pick up, among the whole 12 episodes, I would say that 11.5 episodes really hit the "original series expectation" condition and only the final 0.5 have failed. A good recommendation would be to just ignore the epilogue and you'll get a much better ending feel to the series. Kyoukai no Kanata in overall is a good series just with a bad ending, nonetheless it was still entertaining to follow this series.
Fuyukai desu!
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I'll just leave this here :P
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